Backhaul fault analysis for femto network

ABSTRACT

Described herein are systems and methods for determining IP backhaul issues in a femtocell network. A fault analysis tool retrieves log files from various components within the femtocell network and, using programmed logic, parses the log files and determines whether it is likely that an issue exists with the IP backhaul that prevents the femtocell network from communicating with the network of a wireless carrier. Additional automated tools are able to identify issues within the femtocell network and send instructions to one or more components in the femtocell network to correct the issues.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to provisional application 62/271,201filed on Dec. 22, 2015 which is incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

BACKGROUND

The increasing use of wireless communication devices has led to acorresponding increase in the wireless carrier infrastructure necessaryto support the wireless communication devices. The wireless carrierinfrastructure, while far reaching, may not provide robust and reliableservice to all locations. For example, macro cell coverage may providewireless cellular service to a city or a metropolis; however, there arevarious factors that can influence the reliability of the availablecoverage. For example, signal strength may be influenced by factors suchas the proximity to a macro cell tower, radio frequency interference, orline of sight obstructions such as buildings or geographic terrain.

One approach to increasing the quality of service (QoS) to locationswhere the wireless carrier signal strength can be improved is theinstallation of a femtocell. A femto base station is a low power basestation transceiver that is typically installed indoors and is connectedto the Internet by cable, DSL, fiber optic link, or other suitable IPbackhaul technology. This connection allows the femto base station toconnect to the wireless carrier core network and provide service towireless communication devices registered with the femto base station tocreate a femtocell.

A femtocell is a geographic area served over a single carrier or channelby a femto base station. Generally, a femtocell may be establishedwithin a subscriber's home. The subscriber may use the femtocell toconnect a variety of wireless devices to the femto base station usingshort range wireless technology.

The femtocell may be set up by the user and configured to connect to thewireless carrier home network through the subscriber's Internet ServiceProvider (“ISP”) broadband Internet connection. There are numerous nodeswithin this relatively complex network configuration, and an issue withany of these nodes may disrupt the subscriber's ability to connect tothe home network provided by the wireless carrier. Troubleshooting thenodes within the telecommunications network architecture may provetime-consuming and frustrating, especially for a subscriber who hasestablished their own femtocell and does not have expertise atdiagnosing communication issues within a complex network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanyingfigures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference numberidentifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. Theuse of the same reference numbers in different figures indicates similaror identical items or features.

FIG. 1 illustrates an overview of a wireless communication system.

FIG. 2 illustrates an overview of diagnosing femtocell network issues.

FIG. 3 illustrates a logical flow for diagnosing femtocell networkissues.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram as an example of a logic flow of afemtocell fault analysis tool.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram as an example of a logic flow of afemtocell fault analysis tool.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram as an example of a logic flow of afemtocell fault analysis tool.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram as an example of a logic flow of afemtocell fault analysis tool.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure describes, in part, systems, methods, and tools forimproving the reliability of a femtocell network and identifying andresolving networking issues within the femtocell. The systems andmethods may include diagnostic tools and programmed logic to quickly aidin identifying the one or more nodes that may prevent a reliableconnection, including identifying faults with the backhaul technology.

The initial activation of a femto base station can be problematic,especially where the subscriber's backhaul is not suitable for thefemtocell network. However, troubleshooting issues that prevent thefemtocell from initializing can be very time-consuming and frustrating,especially for a subscriber who is not a network engineer. For example,oftentimes a subscriber may be required to make a change within theconfiguration of a femto base station and be required to wait severalhours to learn whether the change had the desired effect. Within acomplex network, such as the femtocell network, troubleshooting eachnode within the network can be quite difficult and time-consuming. Oneembodiment results in a fault analysis tool that is able to quickly andefficiently retrieve and parse a multitude of log files to quicklyascertain whether the backhaul is the likely culprit, in which case, thewireless carrier may not need to further troubleshoot the issues sinceit has no ability to manage the backhaul hardware or settings.

According to some embodiments, a method for predicting IP backhaulissues in a femtocell network is disclosed in which the methodcomprises, as an initial determination, determining that a fault existsin the femtocell network. Indicia may be received that include femtodevice provisioning data indicating that a femto device was provisioned.Additionally, tunnel data indicating a list of tunnels initiated by thefemto device along with femto manager provisioning data indicating thata femto manager was provisioned may be provided. Service managementplatform (SMP) gateway provisioning data indicating that an SMP gatewayor other required provisioning such as SAM, FGW, and AAA etc. wasprovisioned is also received and the provisioning data is analyzed.Specifically, the method includes analyzing the tunnel data, femtodevice provisioning data, femto manager provisioning data, andadditional provisioning data and determining that the fault in thefemtocell network is with an IP backhaul.

A method for predicting IP backhaul issues may further include receivinga unique identifier of the femtocell device. The identifier may be aserial number or some other unique identifier. Additionally, the tunneldata may include a tunnel array provided by an authentication,authorization, and accounting (AAA) server and the method may furtherinclude removing tunnel data older than a predetermined threshold toresult in recent tunnel data. The recent tunnel data may include themost recent twenty-four hours of tunnel data, forty-eight hours oftunnel data, or tunnel data for some other desired timeframe.

The method may further include determining that there is no activetunnel, and determining that the fault in the femtocell network istherefore with the IP backhaul. Alternatively, the method may furtherinclude determining that the fault in the femtocell network is with theIP backhaul based upon determining that there are no faults with thefemto device provisioning, femto manager provisioning, or the SMPgateway provisioning.

Moreover, the method for predicting IP backhaul issues may indicate thatthe list of tunnels initiated by the femto device includes more than oneboot tunnel, and determining that the fault in the femtocell network iswith the IP backhaul is based at least in part upon the number of boottunnels being above a threshold. For example, if it is determined thatthere are greater than twenty boot tunnels, this is an indicator thatthere is a fault within the femtocell network that is likely the resultof an IP backhaul issue.

According to other embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readablemedium may have executable instructions stored thereon that, whenexecuted by a computing device, cause the computing device to receivefemto base station data identifying a femto base station; receive tunneldata indicating one or more tunnels initiated by the femto base station;extract latest tunnel data by filtering the tunnel data based at leastin part upon a time threshold; establish communication with a femtocellgateway and receive femtocell gateway provisioning data; establishcommunication with a femtocell manager and receive femtocell managerprovisioning data; establish communication with a SMP gateway andreceive SMP gateway provisioning data; establish communication with aSAM and receive SAM provisioning data; execute a fault prediction moduleto analyze one or more of the latest tunnel data, the femtocell gatewayprovisioning data, the femtocell manager provisioning data, SAMprovisioning data and the SMP gateway provisioning data; and determinethat the fault is with an IP backhaul associated with the femto basestation based at least in part upon a determination that the fault isnot with the femto base station, the femtocell gateway, the femtocellmanager, or the SMP gateway.

In other embodiments, the fault with the IP backhaul is determined, atleast in part upon a determination that the latest tunnel data indicatesthat there is not an active tunnel. The absence of an active tunnel forthe femtocell to communicate through is an indicator that there is anissue with the IP backhaul, especially in those embodiments where it isdetermined that the other components within the femtocell network havebeen successfully provisioned.

In some instances, IP backhaul is determined to have issues where thelatest tunnel data indicates that a number of boot tunnels is above athreshold. For example, where there are over twenty boot tunnels, thisindicates that there is problem with the femtocell communication throughthe IP backhaul.

In other embodiments, the fault with the IP backhaul is determined, atleast in part, upon a determination that the tunnel data indicates aserving tunnel initiated by the femto base station, but the servingtunnel is no longer active. An initial serving tunnel indicates that thefemtocell was once active and properly provisioned; however, thesubsequent lack of an active service tunnel indicates a communicationissue, such as with the IP backhaul or that the femto device may havelost power or is otherwise switched off.

In some instances, a graphical user interface is provided and configuredto receive an identification of a femto base station through a userinput to the graphical user interface. Moreover, the graphical userinterface can be used to display information indicating that the faultis with the IP backhaul, or the issue is likely with another componentin the femtocell network.

In some instances, the fault with the IP backhaul is determined, basedat least in part, upon a determination that a serving tunnel wasinitiated, and the SMP gateway was provisioned.

According to other embodiments, a system is provided which includesmemory, one or more processors, a tunnel module stored on the memory andexecutable by the one or more processors to receive tunneling dataindicating tunnels established by a femto base station within afemtocell network, an analysis module stored on the memory andexecutable by the one or more processors to analyze the tunneling data,a fault prediction module stored on the memory and executable by the oneor more processors to parse the tunneling data to determine a faultpreventing the femto base station from communication with a wirelesscarrier network.

The system may categorize the tunnel data to identify boot tunnel data,init tunnel data, and serve tunnel data. In some instances, the tunneldata may further be filtered based upon a predetermined time period,such as, for example, the most recent eight hours, twenty-four hours, orforty-eight hours, or some other desired time period.

The fault prediction module may be executable by the one or moreprocessors to determine that the fault is caused by an IP backhaulassociated with the femto base station. This may be accomplished, forexample, upon a determination that the tunneling data indicates thereare no tunnels. Moreover, it may be accomplished upon a determinationthat the tunneling data indicates a number of boot tunnels exceeding athreshold number of boot tunnels. Alternatively, it may be accomplishedupon a determination that a serving tunnel has been established and thatan SMP gateway has been provisioned.

FIG. 1 illustrates an overview of a wireless communication system. Awireless carrier 100 may provision one or more femtocells 104 to expandthe available network, especially to areas that are indoors or on thecell edge. A femtocell 102 generally includes a small, low-poweredcellular femto base station 104 that is usually deployed in a home or asmall business. For purposes of this disclosure, the method, systems,and techniques described herein will apply to a wide variety of smallcells, of which a femtocell is a subset. However, as an exemplaryimplementation and embodiment, a femtocell will be used throughout thisdescription, although the description should not be limited to afemtocell.

The femtocell 102 connects to the wireless carrier 100 through an IPbackhaul 106. The IP backhaul 106 may be a broadband connection that mayprovide any suitable connection to the Internet, such as DSL, cable,fiber optic, satellite, or any other suitable broadband connection tothe Internet and is provided by the subscriber's internet serviceprovider (“ISP”).

The femtocell 102 allows the wireless carrier 100 to extend servicecoverage in a residential setting or inside the location of a smallbusiness and, in some instances, will allow up to eight, up to 10, or upto 16 or more cellular devices to connect to the femtocell 102. Thefemtocell 102 may be used in conjunction with any applicable cellularstandard, such as GSM, WCDMA, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX, and LTE to namea few examples.

In some embodiments, such as embodiments that utilize 3GPP technology,the femtocell 102 provides a Home Node B (“HNB”). In other embodiments,such as those employing LTE technology, the femtocell 102 provides aHome eNode B (“HeNB”).

The femtocell 102 connects to the Internet through the IP backhaul 106and communicates through a security gateway 108 to various endpoints,such as the core network of the wireless carrier 100. In manyimplementations, the security gateway 108 is a high-density InternetProtocol Security (“IPSec”) Gateway and allows the femtocell 102 tocreate secure tunnels with the wireless carrier 100 or other outsideendpoints to deliver all voice, messaging, and packet data servicesbetween the femtocell 102 and the core network of the wireless carrier100.

In various implementations, the wireless carrier 100 may incorporate anyone or more base stations, node Bs, eNode Bs, or wireless access points(e.g., Wi-Fi access points, WiMax access points, etc.). The wirelesscarrier 100 may include components fixing the wireless carrier 100 to alocation and positioning the wireless carrier 100 at that location, suchas components of a cell tower. The wireless carrier 100 may also supportone or more additional cells of varying sizes, such as macrocells,microcells, picocells, femtocells, or other small cells, of one or moreaccess networks of a telecommunication network. To provide wirelessconnectivity to the telecommunication network, the wireless carrier 100may be equipped with any number of components, such as radio antennas,transmitter components, receiver components, power amplifiers,combiners, duplexers, encoder components, decoder components, band passfilters, power sources, or control components. The wireless carrier 100may also include one or more carrier servers, such as a server or serverfarm, multiple, distributed server farms, a mainframe, a work station, apersonal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tablet computer, anembedded system, or any other sort of device or devices.

In further implementations, the wireless carrier 100 may transmit andreceive over multiple frequency bands. Examples of such frequency bandsmay include a licensed frequency band, an unlicensed frequency band, asemi-licensed frequency band, an overlapped frequency band, a cellularfrequency band, an AWS frequency band, a 700 MHz frequency band (e.g.,band 12), an 800 MHz frequency band, a 900 MHz frequency band, a PCSfrequency band, an 1800 MHz frequency band, a 1900 MHz frequency band, a4.9 GHz frequency band, a GSM frequency band, a 2.4 GHz frequency band,a 5.0 GHz frequency band, a 5.8 GHz frequency band, a 3.65 GHz frequencyband, a UWB frequency band, a frequency band in a range from 3.1-10.6GHz, a 3G frequency band, a WCS frequency band, a MMDS frequency band,or a WiMax frequency band

In some implementations, the telecommunication network which includesthe wireless carrier 100 may include multiple other wireless carriers100 associated with multiple other access networks (visited networks),ensuring continued coverage as the wireless communication device movesfrom location to location. The telecommunication network may implementthe home network as, for example, a System Architecture Evolution (SAE)home network, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) home network, or anyother sort of home network. The home network may include a gateway GPRSsupport node (GGSN), a serving GPRS support node (SGSN), a mobileswitching center (MSC), a home location register (HLR), a visitorlocation register (VLR), a mobility management entity (MME), a servinggateway (SGW), a packet data network gateway—also referred to as apacket gateway (PGW), a home subscriber server (HSS), or an evolvedpacket data gateway (ePDG). The access network(s) and home network ofthe telecommunication network may associated with any one or more accesstechnologies, such as 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, GSM, CDMA, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, LTE,LTE-Advanced, Wi-Fi, or WiMax.

In any event, the femtocell 102 is able to communicate with the wirelesscarrier 100 network by first accessing the IP backhaul 106 provided bythe subscriber's ISP. The security gateway 108 allows bi-directionalsecure communication between the wireless carrier 100 network and thefemtocell 102. That is, a wireless communication device 110 maywirelessly connect to the femtocell 102 and send voice, messaging, andpacket data to the network of the wireless carrier 100.

In various implementations, a wireless communication device 110 may beany sort of computing device known in the art that is capable ofcommunicating over one or more frequency bands. Examples of wirelesscommunication devices 110 include a PC, a laptop computer, a server, aserver farm(s), a mainframe, a tablet computer, a work station, atelecommunication device, a smartphone, a cell phone, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a media player, a media center device, a personal videorecorder (PVR), a television, an electronic book reader, a set-top box,a camera, a video game console, a kiosk, a gaming device, processor(s),integrated components for inclusion in a computing device, an appliance,an electronic device for inclusion in vehicles, a gaming device, or anyother sort of device.

A femtocell gateway 124 aggregates traffic from multiple femtocells 104and allows data transmission with the core network of the wirelesscarrier 100. In some implementations, the femtocell gateway 124aggregates and validates signaling traffic, interfaces with thefemtocell 102 for authentication, and handshakes with the core networkof the wireless carrier 100.

A femtocell manager 126 communicates with the femtocell 102 to ensurethe femtocell 102 has the latest software and firmware updates and isable to conduct diagnostic checks. Any changes that are needed to beperformed to the femtocell 102 may be managed and implemented throughthe femtocell manager 126. For example, the OSS/FS Gateway 118 maycommunicate with the femtocell manager 114 and instruct the femtocellmanger 114 to install or update software, provision the femto basestation 104, update parameters, reboot the femto base station 104, orsome other series of actions. The femto cell manager uses the TR-69communication protocol when communicating to the femto base station 104.Working in conjunction with the OSS/FS Gateway 118 may be a serviceaware manager (SAM) that tracks that service status of the femtocell 102and maintains its own provisioning data which may be used totroubleshoot possible communication or provisioning errors with thefemtocell 102.

An authentication, authorization, and accounting server (AAA server) 116is managed by the wireless carrier 100 and ensures that the femtocell102 provides the necessary credentials in order to access the corenetwork of the wireless carrier 100. The AAA server 116 maintains logfiles of the interactions with the femtocell 102, which can be lateraccessed for troubleshooting purposes.

An Operations Support Systems and File Server (OSS/FS) Gateway 118 maybe in communication with the femtocell 102 and may support managementfunctions, such as, for example, network inventory, networkconfiguration, fault management, and service provisioning, among others.A Service Management Platform (SMP) Gateway 120 may be in communicationwith the OSS/FS gateway 118 and provide management support for theadministration of the femtocell 102 as well as proving provisioningdata.

A Fault Analysis server (FA server) 122 may be in communication with oneor more gateways or servers. For example, the FA server 122 maycommunicate with the femtocell gateway 124, femtocell manager 126, AAAserver 116, OSS/FS/SAM gateway 118, and the SMP gateway 120. The FAserver 122 may also include a web server to allow for web data to besent and received and to provide an interface for one or more webclients.

The FA server may have one or more processors 124 and computer-readablestorage media 126. The computer-readable storage media 126 isnon-transitory and may store various instructions, routines, operations,and modules that, when executed, cause the processors to perform variousactivities. In some implementations, the one or more processors 124 arecentral processor units (CPU), graphics processing units (GPU) or bothCPU and GPU, or any other sort of processing unit. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media 126 may include volatile andnonvolatile, removable and non-removable tangible, physical mediaimplemented in technology for storage of information, such as computerreadable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data.System memory, removable storage, and non-removable storage are allexamples of non-transitory computer-readable media. Non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media 126 may include, but are not limited to,RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM,digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magneticcassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magneticstorage devices, or any other tangible, physical medium which can beused to store the desired information and which can be accessed by theFA server 122.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the computer-readable storage medium 126 ofthe FA server 122 maintains various modules, such as a tunnel module128, an analysis module 130, and a fault prediction module 132. Ofcourse, other modules may be included and may be configured withinstructions to carry out various other tasks not further describedherein. A fault analysis tool (FA tool) 134 may be in communication withthe FA server 122 and may provide an interface to access the describedmodules, routines, and data.

The FA server 122 may be configured to send and receive datacommunications with one or more other components that make up the corenetwork of the wireless carrier 100. For example, the FA server 122 mayestablish communication with one or more of the femtocell manager 114,the femtocell gateway 112, the AAA server 116, the OSS/FS/SAM gateway118, or the SMP gateway 120 to retrieve information related to thefemtocell 102 to the femtocell gateway 112 such as log files, tunnelingdata, provisioning data, and other useful information.

A femtocell 102 is typically established within a subscriber's home orbusiness by connecting a femto base station 104 to a broadband internetconnection provided in the home of the subscriber. The broadbandinternet connection is provided by an ISP, which in many cases, isprovided by an entity separate from the wireless carrier 100. The femtobase station 104 may be a plug and play device requiring no action fromthe subscriber other than connecting it to a power source, andconnecting it to the broadband source, such as a modem or router. Tothis end, the femto base station 104 may be provisioned or partiallyprovisioned prior to delivery to the subscriber, and once the subscriberconnects the femto base station 104 to a power source and a broadbandconnection, the femto base station 104 may contact one or moreprovisioning servers, such as the femtocell manager 114 and the AAAserver 116. These servers may provide software to the femto base station104 and may further configure the femto base station 104 to access thecore network of the wireless carrier 100.

Of course, in order to properly provision the femto base station 104, itmust be connected to the Internet through the IP backhaul 106 providedby the ISP of the subscriber. Any issues with the IP backhaul 106 willprevent the femto base station 104 from connecting with the wirelesscarrier 102, and will not be visible to the wireless carrier 100, butrather, will need to be addressed by the subscriber and the ISP.

In some instances, the femtocell 102 will contact servers of thewireless carrier 100, such as the AAA server 116 and the femtocellmanager 114, to authenticate that it has the necessary permissions andprotocols to send and receive voice and data communication over thenetwork of the wireless carrier 100. The femtocell manager 114 and theAAA server 116 will maintain log files of the interactions with thefemto base station 104 and will identify the femto base station 104 by aunique identifier, such as a serial number associated with the femtobase station 104. By using a unique identifier, the log files can beused to identify a specific femto base station 104 and its interactionwith the various components of the core network of the wireless carrier100.

For example, the femto base station 104 may create an initialization log(init log) as it is powered on and connects to the wireless carrier 100.There may also be a boot log created as the femto base station 104 bootsand records the events that occur during the boot process. The boot logmay be sent to the AAA server 116.

Additionally, a serving log may be created that records eventsassociated with data flow to and from the femtocell 102. One aspect ofthe log files may be the inclusion of tunnel arrays. In some instances,boot tunnel arrays, init tunnel arrays, and serving tunnel arrays may becreated and stored on the AAA server 116. In addition, provisioning logsmay be maintained and can be retrieved through the OSS/FS Gateway 118,the SMP Gateway 120, or some other node.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are flow diagrams showing illustrative routines foridentifying and predicting faults within the femtocelltelecommunications network. It should be appreciated that the logicaloperations described herein with respect to FIGS. 2 and 3 areimplemented (1) as a sequence of computer implemented acts or programmodules running on a computing system and/or (2) as interconnectedmachine logic circuits or circuit modules within the computing system.The implementation is a matter of choice dependent on the performanceand other requirements of the computing system. Accordingly, the logicaloperations described herein are referred to variously as operations,structural devices, acts, or modules. These operations, structuraldevices, acts, and modules may be implemented in software, in firmware,in special purpose digital logic, in special purpose hardware, and anycombination thereof. It should also be appreciated that more or feweroperations may be performed than shown in the figures and describedherein. These operations may also be performed in parallel, or in adifferent order than those described herein.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example process for predicting faults by the FAserver 122. At block 202, the FA server 122 collects and builds tunnelarray data, provisioning data, and errors and alarms data. The FA server122 may request the tunnel data from one or more log files stored on theAAA server 116. The request may be time-bound, such as a request for thepast 48 hours, or the past 24 hours, or the most recent 12-hour or4-hour periods. The tunnel array data may be requested for a specificfemtocell 102, such as by including the serial number of the femto basestation 104 of interest with the request. In some instances, the FAserver 122 sends a request to the AAA server 116 that includes theserial number of a specific femto base station 104 and requests the logfiles, such as a boot log, an init log, and a serving log. The log filesare returned to the FA server 122 for analysis of the tunnel array data.

The FA server 122 may request the provisioning data from the SNIPGateway 120, from the OSS/FS Gateway 118, or from a combination of bothgateways. The FA server 122 may request the errors and alarms data fromthe femtocell manager 114, the OSS/FS/SAM Gateway 118, or a combination.

The tunnel array data is analyzed at block 204, where extraneousinformation may be filtered out, or may be reorganized to a format thatmakes processing the tunnel array data more efficient. The tunnel arraydata may contain data that indicates an identity of the tunnels that arecreated, a timestamp indicating when the tunnels were created, packetinformation indicating the size and type of data packets being sentand/or received, and the endpoints of the tunnels. The tunnel array datamay be analyzed in order to identify any immediate issues. For example,if the tunnel array data is devoid of any reported tunnels beinginitiated, this may be indicative of an issue with the femtocell 102establishing an initial connection with the wireless carrier 100. Thismay indicate an issue, for example, with the IP backhaul 106 thatprevents the femtocell 102 from connecting to the internet.

At block 206, the provisioning data is analyzed. As an initial matter,when the femtocell 102 is established, it must be provisioned in orderto communicate with the wireless carrier 100. During this initial setup,provisioning data will be written to log files indicating that thefemtocell 102 has been properly set up and is communicating with thewireless carrier 100. As an initial troubleshooting matter, theprovisioning data in the log files is verified to ensure that thefemtocell 102 was properly provisioned. If the provisioning data ismissing, the logical step will be to attempt to provision the femtocell102 again. This may be accomplished, for example, by sendinginstructions to the femto base station 104, or by instructing a user onhow to provision the femto base station 104.

At block 208, the errors and alarms data is analyzed for possiblefailures. The errors and alarms data may include data relating to anyissues with proper and complete provisioning, communication errors, orother information that may be related to improper setup or functioningof the femtocell 102.

At block 210, the log files are analyzed to identify likely issues, ifany. Within a complex femtocell 102 communication network, there arenumerous nodes that could be responsible for a myriad of issues thatcould result in communication failures with the femtocell 102. The logfiles may be analyzed to look for issues that could lead tocommunication failure. As described above, the lack of provisioning datain the log files is a key indicator that the femto base station 104 wasnot properly provisioned. An analysis of the tunneling data may alsoindicate failures, or likely failures, with certain nodes within thefemtocell 102 communication network. For example, fault analysis logicmay be programmed into a troubleshooting tool that is programmed withinstructions designed to analyze the log data and identify possibleissues with the femtocell 103.

FIG. 3 illustrates another, more detailed, example process for analyzingfaults 300 by the FA server 122. The process 300 is illustrated as alogical flow graph, each operation of which represents a sequence ofoperations that can be implemented in hardware, software, or acombination thereof. In the context of software, the operationsrepresent computer-executable instructions stored on one or morenon-transitory computer-readable storage media that, when executed byone or more processors, perform the recited operations. Generally,computer-executable instructions include routines, programs, objects,components, data structures, and the like that perform particularfunctions or implement particular abstract data types. The order inwhich the operations are described is not intended to be construed as alimitation, and any number of the described operations can be combinedin any order and/or in parallel to implement the processes. Theprocesses may be performed by hardware, such as the hardware illustratedin the figures and described herein.

At block 302, data associated with the femto base station 104 isretrieved that may indicate a specific femto base station 104 toanalyze. In some examples, this information is retrieved when a customerplaces a call to representatives of the wireless carrier to help get thefemtocell 102 operating. In some instances, the subscriber provides anidentification of the femto base station 104, such as by providing aserial number. The representatives of the wireless carrier mayalternatively retrieve the serial number of the femto base station 104based upon customer information, such as the customer's name, address,account number, social security number, or some other identifier thatcan be linked with the customer's profile, which may contain anidentifier of the femto base station 104, such as the serial numberassociated with the femto base station 104. This information may bestored in a database and accessible to the representative of thewireless carrier.

At block 304, the tunnel data is retrieved. The retrieved tunnel datamay be specific to the femto base station 104, or may include a largesample of tunnel data from multiple femto base stations 104, and can befiltered to include the tunnel data from the femto base station 104 ofinterest.

At block 306, the tunnel data may be filtered to, for example, focusonly on the femto base station 104 of interest. Alternatively, thetunnel data may be filtered to extract only the most recent tunnel data.For example, a filtering routine may be executed to filter the tunneldata based upon a time stamp associated with the tunnel data. The tunneldata may be filtered, for example, to show only the most recent 4 hoursof tunnel data, or the most recent day of tunnel data, or the mostrecent week of tunnel data, in order to determine a recent history ofthe tunnel data associated with the femto base station 104 as itconnected to the wireless carrier 102. The most recent tunnel data mayinclude any private or public IP addresses associated with the femtobase station 104 and may additionally include the current tunnel dataassociated with the femto base station 104.

At block 308, the provisioning data is retrieved from the SMP gatewaygateway 120. The SMP gateway 120 provisioning data may include datarelating to the femto base station 104, such as a database havinginformation stored therein related to the communication packets sent toand from the femto base station 104.

At block 310, the provisioning data is retrieved from the OSS/FS gateway118. The OSS/FS gateway 118 provisioning data may indicate thecommunication between the femto base station 104 and the OSS/FS gateway118, and may include data relating to the femto base station 104 havingthe proper provisioning and that the required nodes are functioningproperly.

At block 312, the femtocell 102 status alarms and errors data isretrieved from the femtocell manager 114, the OSS/FS Gateway 118, theSNIP Gateway 120, or a combination of nodes that are in communicationwith the femtocell 102. The status alarms and errors data may indicateany failures or known errors with tunneling, provisioning, missing data,communication, or other errors that may affect performance of thefemtocell 102 . . . .

At block 314, the provisioning data may be sorted, filtered, andanalyzed to determine a likely node failure. For example, where thelatest tunnel data indicates that there is no currently active tunnel,this may indicate that there is a problem with the IP backhaul 106. Asanother example, where there is an active tunnel indicated, and thefemtocell gateway 112 provisioning data indicates that it has beenproperly provisioned, then the issue may be that the femto base station104 is still being activated and there is no action to take other thanto wait for the femto base station 104 to become active after finalprovisioning.

In some embodiments, fault analysis logic may be programmed into atroubleshooting tool that is programmed with instructions designed toanalyze the provisioning log data and identify possible issues with thefemtocell 102.

In some instances, the FA server 122 includes software written toprovide a user interface to allow a representative of the wirelesscarrier, or the subscriber, to retrieve information regarding thefemtocell 102 that may indicate a node where an issue lies that preventscommunication between the femtocell 102 and the wireless carrier 100.

Specifically, the FA server 122 may contain software that provides afault analysis tool. As described in relation to FIG. 1, the FA server122 may have one or more processors 124 in communication withcomputer-readable memory 126. The computer-readable memory may haveinstructions stored thereon, that when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the processors to perform various acts. Theinstructions may be stored in various modules, such as, a tunnel module128, an analysis module 130, and a fault prediction module 132.Additional modules may be included to provide additional functionalityand features to enhance the applicability and usability of the describedFA tool 134. The FA tool 134 may provide a user interface to receiveuser input and provide detailed information to a user, includinginformation related to possible fault predictions.

In some embodiments, the FA tool 134 comprises a web-based interfacethat allows a user to interact with the FA server 122 over an internetconnection. The FA tool 134 may be written in any suitable language toallow a user to send and receive information to the FA server 122 in aneffort to predict and/or diagnose faults within the femtocell 102telecommunication system.

The FA tool 134 may be programmed with fault prediction logic that isconfigured to analyze data provided by the wireless carrier 100 topredict likely node failures. As an initial input, the FA tool 134 maybe provided with a unique identifier of a femto base station 104 ofinterest, such as a serial number. Of course, other unique identifiersmay be used, but for purposes of the described examples, a serial numberassociated with a femto base station 104 will be used.

The FA tool 134 can then retrieve the relevant log files andprovisioning data associated with the femto base station 104 and apply aseries of logical steps in order to analyze the log files andprovisioning data to determine or predict a most logical node offailure.

FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate example logic diagrams that the FA tool 134 mayuse in order to help predict or identify faults within the femtocell102. The operations depicted in the logic diagrams may be entirelyperformed by modules residing within computer-readable memory 126 of theFA server 122, or may be performed by the FA server 122 in conjunctionwith additional gateways and servers within the infrastructure of thewireless carrier 100, such as the femtocell gateway 112, the femtocellmanager 114, the AAA server 116, the OSS/FS gateway 118, and the SMPgateway 120, among others.

Not all of the operations need be present or in the order in which theyare depicted. The logic diagrams of FIGS. 4 and 5 are for examplepurposes only to illustrate one possible method for predicting IPbackhaul 106 faults in a femtocell 102 network. For illustrationpurposes, the following description will assume that the logicoperations are programmed onto the FA server 122 and are accessiblethrough the FA tool 134.

FIG. 4 illustrates a fault prediction system 400 that embodies logicdescribed herein to predict network faults. At block 402, the femto basestation 104 ID is retrieved. The femto base station 104 ID may be aserial number associated with the femto base station 104 or may be someother unique identifier. It may be retrieved from a database havinginformation associated with a subscriber, it may alternatively beprovided by a subscriber, for example, by entering the information intoa user interface of the FA tool 134.

The FA tool 134 may then retrieve tunnel information at block 404. Thetunnel information may include information regarding the tunnelsestablished or renewed by the femto base station 104 of interest, andmay be organized in an array or a database structure. The tunnelinformation may additionally include timestamp information associatedwith each tunnel information entry to allow the FA tool 134 to furtherrefine and filter the tunnel information by the relevant timestamp.

At block 406, the latest tunnel information is determined, such as, forexample, by filtering out the tunnel information that is older than theprevious 8, hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, or some other desired timeperiod. The result is that only the most recent tunnel information isprovided to the FA tool 134 to reduce the memory and processing cyclesrequired to analyze the subset of tunnel information.

At block 408, the system 400 parses the tunnel information anddetermines whether there is a tunnel reported. If there is no reportedtunnel in the tunnel information, then the logic flows to block 410 andthe system predicts that there is a communications issue with the femtobase station 104 and that it cannot communicate with the wirelesscarrier 100 network. The system may return a message indicating thatthere is a likely issue with the connection of the femto base station104 to the subscriber's ISP, which may indicate an IP backhaul issue.

At block 412, if the system 400 determines that there is a tunnelreported at block 408, the system 400 extracts the tunnel information.This may be accomplished, for example, by parsing the tunnel informationand extracting the data indicative of the boot tunnel, init tunnel, andserving tunnel information from an array containing all the tunnelinformation.

At block 414, the extracted tunnel information is analyzed andcategorized to identify, among other things, the types of tunnels thatare established.

At block 416, the system 400 determines the latest tunnel and furtherdetermines whether the latest tunnel is a serving tunnel. If there is noserving tunnel, then the logic proceeds to the logic diagram illustratedin FIG. 5. If there is a serving tunnel, then the system 400 determines,at block 418, whether the serving tunnel is active.

If the system 400 determines that the serving tunnel is not active, thenat block 420, the system 400 may return a message indicating that thefemtocell 102 was provisioned properly and may have lost connection tothe network and to check the power and data cable of the femto basestation 104.

If the system 400 determines that there is an active tunnel, at block422, the system 400 retrieves the data from the femtocell manager 114.The data from the femtocell manager 114 will indicate, among otherthings, whether the femtocell manager 114 was provisioned.

At block 424, the system 400 determines whether the femtocell manager114 was provisioned properly. If the femtocell manager 114 was notprovisioned, then the system 400, at block 426, determines whether theSMP gateway 120 was provisioned properly. If the SMP gateway 120 was notprovisioned, then the system 400 determines that there were provisioningissues during the initial setup of the femtocell 102 and returns anindication that there are provisioning issues 428 and the provisioningsteps may need to be repeated.

If the system 400 determines that the SMP gateway 120 was properlyprovisioned, then the system 400 returns a message indicating that theSMP gateway 120 and the femtocell manager 114 may need to besynchronized 430. In some instances, the FA tool 134 may issueinstructions to the femtocell manager 114 and/or the SMP gateway 120 tosynchronize with each other, thereby automatically resolving the likelyissue with the femtocell 102 network.

Returning to block 424, if the system 400 determines that the femtocellmanager was provisioned, at block 432, the system 400 retrieves datafrom the femto base station 104. The data from the femto base station104 will include data indicating, among other things, whether the femtobase station 104 was properly provisioned during the setup process.

At block 434, the system 400 parses the data from the femto base station104 and determines whether the femto base station was properlyprovisioned. If the system 400 determines that the femto base station104 was not properly provisioned, then the system 400 returns anindication that the femtocell manager 114 and the femto base station 104need to synchronize with one another 436. The system 400 may issue acommand to the femtocell manager 114 and/or the femto base station 104to synchronize thereby automatically resolving the likely issue with thefemtocell 102. If, however, the system 400 determines that the femtobase station 104 was properly provisioned, then the system 400 mayreturn an indication that the provisioning process is still in progress438.

FIG. 5 continues the logic operations depicted in FIG. 4 and begins witha reproduction of block 416 in which the system 400 determines whether aserving tunnel exists. FIG. 5 shows additional logic that the system 400may follow if the system 400 determines that there is a latest tunneland that the latest tunnel is a serving tunnel.

At block 502, the system 400 determines whether the femto base station104 is stuck in an initialization state. This may be performed, forexample, by determining a number of active tunnels and if it isdetermined that there are a relatively large number of tunnels, such asgreater than about forty tunnels, for example, then the system 400 maysend a command to the femto base station 104 to reboot or reinitializein an attempt to get out of the initialization loop.

At block 504, the system 400 may retrieve the SMP gateway 120 data,which may include, among other things, provisioning data associated withthe SMP gateway 120. If the system determines that the SMP gateway 120is properly provisioned, then at block 508, the system returns anindication that there is likely an IP backhaul issue or an issue withsubscriber or ISP hardware, such as a router or modem that is preventingthe femto base station 104 from connecting to the internet through theISP of the subscriber.

At block 510, if the system 400 determines that the SMP gateway 120 wasproperly provisioned, then the system determines whether the state ofthe SMP gateway 120 has marked the femtocell device as active. If thesystem 400 determines that the state is already active, then at block512, the system 400 predicts that the transport connection needs to bereset, and the system 400 may issue a command to automatically reset thetransport connection.

If the system 400 determines that the SMP gateway 120 was not properlyprovisioned at block 506, then at block 514, a service request iselevated to engineering support for additional troubleshooting. Thesystem 400 therefore determines that the fault within the femtocell 102network is not able to be diagnosed quickly by the subscriber, butrather, may require additional technical resources from the wirelesscarrier in order to properly diagnose and solve the communication issueswith the femtocell 102 network.

With continued reference to FIG. 5, returning again to block 416, if thesystem 400 determines that a serving tunnel does not exist, then thesystem 400 determines whether a boot tunnel exists at block 516. If ablock tunnel does not exist, then the system 400 determines, at block518, that there is a likely issue with the IP backhaul 106 and that thesubscriber needs to contact the ISP to troubleshoot the IP backhaulissue. Alternatively, the issue may reside with the modem or router atthe subscriber's location. In any event, the issue is not likely withthe femto base station 104 or any equipment maintained by the wirelesscarrier 100.

If the system 400 determines that a boot tunnel exists, then at block520, the system 400 determines whether there are a number of tunnelsgreater than a threshold, such as greater than twenty boot tunnels. Ifthe number of active boot tunnels is greater than a threshold amount,then the system 400 returns an indication that there is likely an issuewith the ISP blocking data packets, such as by blocking a specifiedport.

If the system determines, at block 520, that there are fewer than athreshold number of boot tunnels, then the system determines, at block524, whether there is an active boot tunnel. If the system determinesthat there is not an active boot tunnel, then the system, at block 520,returns an indication that the femto base station 104 is likely offlineand the subscriber should verify that the femto base station 104 isturned on and connected to the IP backhaul 106.

If the system determines, at block 524, that there is an active boottunnel, then the system returns an indication that the femto basestation 104 is still initializing.

The described logic flow illustrates some examples of decisions andpredictions that the system 400 can make based upon the data provided bythe log files. As described herein, the log files may containprovisioning data, tunnel data, packet data, and other information thatthe system 400 may be able to use to determine the likely issuesaffecting the femtocell 102 network.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a fault prediction system 600 thatembodies logic described herein to analyze network faults. At block 602,the FA tool 134 may retrieve the femto base station 104 data that mayinclude an identification of the specific femto base station 104 ofinterest. In addition to the femto base station data, the tunnel data isgathered at block 604. The tunnel data my include data representingcommunication connections to and from the femto base station 104. Atblock 606, the latest tunnel data is extracted. For example, the tunneldata may be filtered to show only the most recent four or twelve hoursof tunnel data.

At block 608, the provisioning data is gathered, which may indicate thatthe femtocell 102 and all the required nodes, were properly provisionedand ready to initiate a connection with the wireless carrier 100. Atblock 610, the errors and alarms data is gathered, which may indicateany possible issues with the femtocell 102.

At block 612, the tunnel data is analyzed to determine whether there areany tunnels reported. If there are no tunnels being reported, this maybe an indication that there is a backhaul connection problem, such as ablocked port, at block 620. The logic continues at block 614 to checkthe provisioning data to ensure that the femtocell 102 was provisioned.If the provisioning data checks out, at block 616, an error is reportedthat there is likely an issue with the backhaul. If there are errorswith the provisioning data, at block 618, the provisioning issues arereported.

Returning to block 612, if there are reported tunnels, at block 622 thesystem determines whether there is an active serving tunnel and whetherit is the latest tunnel. If there is an active serving tunnel, thesystem determines whether the latest tunnel is recent, such as newerthan about fifteen seconds, at block 624. Of course, another time periodmay be utilized as a threshold. If the system determines that the latesttunnel is not more recent than a predetermined threshold, at block 626,the system determines that the femtocell dropped offline at the latesttunnel time and may report that this is the case.

Returning to block 624, if the latest tunnel is newer than apredetermined threshold, such as about fifteen seconds, then the systemdetermines whether the femtocell 102 is activated in the SMP Gateway120. If the femtocell appears to have been activated in the SMP Gateway,at block 630, the system determines whether the SAM state of thefemtocell 102 acknowledges that the femtocell 102 is “registered.” Ifthe femtocell 102 is designated as registered, at block 632, the radiotransmit status of the femtocell 102 is checked. If, at block 634, theradio transmit status of the femtocell 102 is OK, then at 636, thesystem determines that the femtocell is active. If, however, the radiotransmit status of the femtocell 102 is not functioning as expected,then at 638, the femtocell 102 gateway 112 registration and alarms areanalyzed for possible faults or errors, and the faults are reported atblock 640.

Returning to block 630, if the SAM state does not indicate that thefemtocell 102 is “registered,” but rather, indicates, at block 642, thatthe femtocell 102 is awaiting transfer to be complete, then the systemreports, at block 644, that the femtocell is applying a newconfiguration and should be operational soon.

Returning to block 628, if the femtocell 102 has not been activated inthe SMP gateway 120, then the system determines, at block 646, whetherthe SAM was properly provisioned. If so, then the system responds thatthe femtocell 102 is in its final activation sequence, at block 648. Ifthe system determines, at block 646, that the SAM was not properlyprovisioned, then the system determines that there is a provisioningdiscrepancy, at block, 650, and responds accordingly.

Returning to block 622, if the system 600 determines either that (i) theserving tunnel does not exist, or that (ii) the serving tunnel is notthe latest tunnel, then the system proceeds to analyze the init tunneldata.

With reference to FIG. 7, continuing from FIG. 6, the init tunnel datais analyzed at block 702. If the system determines that there is anactive init tunnel and that it is the latest tunnel, at block 704, thesystem 600 determines whether there are a number of init tunnels greaterthan a predetermined threshold, such as about forty init tunnels. Ifthere are fewer than the predetermined number of init tunnels, then atblock 706, the system analyzed the init tunnels to determine whether thelatest tunnel is more recent than a threshold value of time, such asfifteen seconds in some embodiments. Of course, other threshold valuesof time can be used in other embodiments. If the latest init tunnel ismore recent than a predetermined threshold value of time, then, at block708, the system 600 determines whether the SMP was properly provisionedand activated. If the SMP was properly provisioned and activated, atblock 710, the system 600 determines whether the SAM was properlyprovisioned. If the SAM appears to have been properly provisioned, thatat block 712, the system reports that the femto base station 104 isdownloading and/or applying the latest configuration; otherwise, atblock 714, the system responds that there is a likely SAM provisioningissue.

Returning to block 708, if the system 600 determines that the SMP wasnot properly provisioned or activated, than at block 716, the SMP statusis checked and if it appears to be operating normally, then the system600 may report, at block 718, that there is a tamper alarm or otherissue that affected the femtocell 102 provisioning.

Returning to block 706, if the latest tunnel is older than apredetermined threshold value of time, then at block 720, the systemdetermines whether the SMP state reports as active. If the SMP status isactive, then at block 722, the system 600 determines whether the SAM wasprovisioned. If the system 600 determines that the SAM was not properlyprovisioned, then at block 724, the system reports that there was anerror with the SAM provisioning; otherwise, at block 726, the systemresponds that the connections need to be reset, or in the alternative,and maybe as an escalation procedure, issue a factory reset to the femtobase station 104. The factory reset command may be issued automaticallyby the system 600, or a prompt may be provided to another device or userof the system 600 that this is the recommended course of action.

Returning to block 704, if the system 600 determines that there are agreater number of init tunnels than a predetermined threshold, such asforty tunnels, then at block 728, the system 600 determines whether theSMP was provisioned. If the SMP was properly provisioned, then at block730, the system determines whether the SAM was provisioned. If the SAMwas not provisioned appropriately, then the system 600 reports thatthere is a SAM provisioning issue at block 732; otherwise, at block 734,the system reports that there may be a backhaul issue, such as withmodem settings or DNS issues with equipment not under the control of thewireless carrier 100.

Returning to block 702, if the system 600 determines either that (i) aninit tunnel does not exist, or (ii) the init tunnel is not the latesttunnel, then at block 736, the system 600 determines whether a boottunnel exists. If a boot tunnel exists, at block 738, the system 600analyzes the boot tunnel logs to determine whether there are a greaternumber of boot tunnels than a predetermined threshold value, such astwenty boot tunnels. If there are a number of boot tunnels exceeding thepredetermined threshold, then at block 740, the system reports thatthere may be an issue with the ISP of the subscriber blocking ports,such as UDP port 4500.

If the system 600 determines that a number of existing boot tunnels islower than a threshold number, then the system 600 determines whetherthe latest boot tunnel is more recent than a threshold value, such asabout fifteen seconds. If the system 600 determines that the latest boottunnel is newer than the predetermined value, then the system reports,at block 744, that the first activation sequence is started; otherwise,at block 746, the system 600 reports, at block 746, that the femtocell102 went offline during the activation sequence.

Returning to block 736, if the system 600 determines that a boot tunneldoes not exist, at block 748 the system runs an analysis of theprovisioning check logic to reports, at block 750, that there is abackhaul connection issue, such as, for example, that the bridge modeshould be activated for a modem of the subscriber, UDP ports 123 and 500need to be allowed by the ISP of the subscriber.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather,the specific features and acts are disclosed as exemplary forms ofimplementing the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for determining IP backhaul issues in afemtocell network, the method comprising: receiving femto deviceprovisioning data indicating that a femto device was provisioned;receiving tunnel data indicating a list of tunnels initiated by thefemto device; receiving femto manager provisioning data indicating thata femto manager was provisioned; receiving service management platform(SMP) gateway provisioning data indicating that an SMP gateway wasprovisioned; analyzing the tunnel data, femto device provisioning data,femto manager provisioning data, and SMP gateway provisioning data; andbased at least in part on the analyzing, determining that a fault in thefemtocell network is with an IP backhaul.
 2. The method for determiningIP backhaul issues as recited in claim 1, further comprising receiving aunique identifier of the femto device.
 3. The method for determining IPbackhaul issues as recited in claim 1, wherein receiving the tunnel dataincludes receiving a tunnel array from an authentication, authorization,and accounting (AAA) server and further comprises removing tunnel dataolder than a predetermined threshold to result in recent tunnel data. 4.The method for determining IP backhaul issues as recited in claim 3,further comprising determining that there is no active tunnel, anddetermining that the fault in the femtocell network is with the IPbackhaul is based at least in part upon determining that there is noactive tunnel.
 5. The method for determining IP backhaul issues asrecited in claim 1, wherein determining that the fault in the femtocellnetwork is with the IP backhaul is performed after determining thatthere are no faults with the femto device provisioning, femto managerprovisioning, or the SMP gateway provisioning.
 6. The method fordetermining IP backhaul issues as recited in claim 1, wherein the listof tunnels initiated by the femto device includes more than one boottunnel, and determining that the fault in the femtocell network is withthe IP backhaul is based at least in part upon the number of boottunnels being above a threshold.
 7. A non-transitory computer-readablemedium having executable instructions stored thereon that, when executedby a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operationscomprising: receive femto base station data identifying a femto basestation; receive tunnel data indicating one or more tunnels initiated bythe femto base station; extract latest tunnel data by filtering thetunnel data based at least in part upon a time threshold; establishcommunication with a femtocell gateway and receive femtocell gatewayprovisioning data; establish communication with a femtocell manager andreceive femtocell manager provisioning data; establish communicationwith a SMP gateway and receive SMP gateway provisioning data; execute afault prediction module to analyze one or more of the latest tunneldata, the femtocell gateway provisioning data, the femtocell managerprovisioning data, and the SMP gateway provisioning data; and determinethat the fault is with an IP backhaul associated with the femto basestation based at least in part upon a determination that the fault isnot with the femto base station, the femtocell gateway, the femtocellmanager, or the SMP gateway.
 8. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 7, wherein the fault with the IP backhaul is determined,at least in part upon a determination that the latest tunnel dataindicates that there is not an active tunnel.
 9. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the fault with the IPbackhaul is determined, at least in part, upon a determination that thelatest tunnel data indicates that a number of boot tunnels is above athreshold.
 10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7,wherein the fault with the IP backhaul is determined, at least in part,upon a determination that the tunnel data indicates a serving tunnelinitiated by the femto base station, but the serving tunnel is no longeractive.
 11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7,wherein the operations further comprise creating a graphical userinterface for presentation on a display, the graphical user interfaceconfigured to receive an identification of a femto base station througha user input to the graphical user interface.
 12. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the operations furthercomprise outputting information to the graphical user interfaceindicating that the fault is with the IP backhaul.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the faultwith the IP backhaul is determined, based at least in part, upon adetermination that a serving tunnel was initiated and the SMP gatewaywas provisioned.
 14. A system, comprising: memory; one or moreprocessors; a tunnel module stored on the memory and executable by theone or more processors to receive tunneling data indicating tunnelsestablished by a femto base station within a femtocell network; ananalysis module stored on the memory and executable by the one or moreprocessors to analyze the tunneling data; and a fault prediction modulestored on the memory and executable by the one or more processors toparse the tunneling data to determine a fault preventing the femto basestation from communication with a wireless carrier network, wherein thetunnel module is further executable by the one or more processors tocategorize the tunnel data to identify boot tunnel data, init tunneldata, and serve tunnel data.
 15. The system as in claim 14, wherein thetunnel module is further executable by the one or more processors tofilter the tunnel data based upon a predetermined time period.
 16. Thesystem as in claim 14, wherein the fault prediction module is executableby the one or more processors to determine that the fault is caused byan IP backhaul associated with the femto base station.
 17. The system asin claim 16, wherein the fault is caused by an IP backhaul isdetermined, based at least in part, upon a determination that thetunneling data indicates there are no tunnels.
 18. The system as inclaim 16, wherein the fault is caused by an IP backhaul is determined,based at least in part, upon a determination that the tunneling dataindicates a number of boot tunnels exceeding a threshold number of boottunnels.
 19. The system as in claim 16, wherein the fault is caused byan IP backhaul is determined, based at least in part, upon adetermination that a serving tunnel has been established and that an SMPgateway has been provisioned.